Vulnerability in nltk (CVE-2025-71408)
Summary
Vulnerability in nltk (CVE-2025-71408). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. Mitigation: upgrade to 3.9.3 or later.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit) before version 3.9.3 contains an eval injection vulnerability in the nltk.collocations module that allows an attacker who controls command-line arguments to execute arbitrary Python code. When collocations.py is invoked directly, the main block passes command-line arguments directly to eval() as suffixes of BigramAssocMeasures without allowlist validation or sanitization, enabling an attacker to supply a Python expression that escapes the intended attribute lookup and executes arbitrary code including OS commands via the os module.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD GitHub Advisory
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-71408 has been found in nltk.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. CVSS score: 7.8/10.
What to do: upgrade nltk to 3.9.3 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "nltk CVE-2025-71408" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2025-71408 (nltk) — CWE-95 / CVSS v3 7.8
Attack vector: local / no user interaction
Patched: 3.9.3 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
A vulnerability (CWE-95) exists in nltk.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of nltk.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.8/10). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to 3.9.3.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'nltk' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1Identify exposure identify
grep -r 'nltk' . | grep -v node_modulesリポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で
nltkを grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。 -
2Apply patch patch
Upgrade nltk to 3.9.3ステージング環境で 3.9.3 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
-
3Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Affected packages
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71408 nltk
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-71408 nltk
References
- advisory github.com
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- advisory github.com
- package github.com
- patch github.com
- patch github.com
- patch vulncheck.com
- report aydinnyunus.github.io
- web aydinnyunus.github.io
- web github.com